A WOMAN whose car crashed on a notorious bend which claimed a motorcyclist's life has urged Kirklees Council to make the road safer.

A WOMAN whose car crashed on a notorious bend which claimed a motorcyclist's life has urged Kirklees Council to make the road safer.

Joiner Winston Garlick, 28, of West Slaithwaite, died when his Suzuki bike crashed on the double bend near the Ford pub on Greenhead Road above Holmfirth.

After reading about Sunday's tragedy, 32-year-old Nicola Ratcliffe, of Carrs Road, Marsden, told the Examiner she had been in a crash on the same bend.

And she said at least three other cars had crashed on the bend on the day of her accident - and two had ended up on their roofs.

She was taking her sons, 11-year-old Adam and Oliver, seven, to Holmfirth at around 9am when the crash happened on Friday, April 25.

She said: "I'm well used to that road and wasn't speeding.

"It was foggy and the road was wet. As I went round the first corner the back end just went and I felt the car glide across the road."

She tried to steer her Fiat Stilo out of the slide and straighten it up, but the back end hit the wall.

The car spun round and the front then hit a wall before it overturned, teetering half on the road and half over a steep, 30ft drop.

Ms Ratcliffe scrambled out through the driver's window and dragged the boys clear.

Adam had cuts to his face caused by flying glass, but Ms Ratcliffe and Oliver were unhurt.

She said: "There was nothing I could have done to avoid it. We were so very lucky. If the car had gone over the edge, we'd have been killed."

The Fiat was written off.

A friend gave Ms Ratcliffe a lift to get her belongings out of the car later that day, but when they returned up Greenfield Road they came across another accident on the same bend.

This time a Land Rover Freelander was on its roof.

Ms Ratcliffe added: "I think there may have been a further two accidents there that day alone.

"I believe there is a problem with the road surface and it needs anti-skid material."

She said: "Kirklees Council wrote to me and told me I'd have to pay to have the wall rebuilt. Yet it's three months on and the work has not been done.

"There is only a temporary barrier at the moment. It needs to be rebuilt, with a specially reinforced barrier.

"The wall has constantly been rebuilt over the years, but it will not stop accidents happening there again.

"Something needs to be done - and fast."

A Kirklees Council spokesman said that up to the end of April, police had recorded four injury accidents at the bend in five years.

He added: "We were given to understand there had been other accidents there which were non-injury and had not been recorded.

"We know about those because we have had to repair the walls."

He said improvements had been carried out in a bid to slow traffic and make people aware the two bends were coming up.

They included double white lines to prevent overtaking, chevron boards warning of a sharp bend and the word Slow written on the road.

He said a drain had been put in to clear surface water coming off nearby fields on to the bends.

The spokesman added: "In view of the fatality we will review the action we have taken and see if further measures can be introduced. We will be looking at the surface and the possibility of more signs."